The American Empire is driven by money and greed. As are other empires always, and currently Russia and China, who are at least as corrupt if not more. Religions as institutions have participated-the bishop on a chess board is a Very powerful piece, druids were the power behind the ancient Celtic kings and chieftains. The anti government sentiment that elected Trump wasn’t entirely off base, but were manipulated by Trump to his ends and fighting against the wrong enemy. The enemy is ourselves- we benefit from the Empire, and the perks of wealth Built upon the backs of the poor masses around the world are enjoyed. Nothing will change until we change.
How is Russia or China "at least as corrupt if not more?
The anti-government sentiment is entirely off base and serves the neoliberal agenda of the financialization and privatization of the global economy, an ideology pushed by Washington.
The 'city on the hill' has had a consistent foreign policy of financialization of the global economy, which means the deterioration of what sovereignty governments have. "Globalization" is just a euphemism for imperialism, the domination of monopoly capital. The reason revolutionaries in places like Bolivia praise China and say that their projects would be so much more difficult without them is because they help them develop infrastructure without the "structural adjustment" demands of the IMF, which is just an arm of US imperialism.
Anti-government ideology serves to reduce the bourgeoisie state to its essential functions and strip protections away from workers.
Trump is not member of any group other than himself-he defines narcissism. Selfishness of the politicians and corporates leaders who lives lives of wealth and ease, selfishness of the masses who, if given the opportunity to live Trump’s life, will do so in a heartbeat. What I do appreciate about the current administration, which will probably not change America’s course in foreign affairs, is a willingness to support policies which are less destructive to the environment. That matters to me.
You're right about Trump. He wasn't abhorred by the establishment because he was fighting the Deep State (pretending Zionism is somehow vital to American democracy is pretty much Deep State 101); no, Trump's posture was too openly craven to play kindly Uncle Sam, champion of the oppressed and afflicted.
What's needed is an uplifting Obama-esque word-salad to quell the stench of children as drone targets. Our Liberal class cares nothing about this; they are only relieved that a semi-cogent careerist ghoul is now doing the killing, while those on the right never pretended to care in the first place.
This a great example of how disgusting and gross things can get. What makes it so disgusting is the fact that they feign morality, are so righteous. That makes their lies that much more disgusting.
What worries me is that many of the actual good guys in the whole truth/narrative battle i.e. people who are not hypocrites and are not afraid to speak the truth about what they see are often either lacking in a vision for the world or there is a lot of “it’s time to break off and start our own autonomous community.” In the first case, I think the idea of Justice, a good society, and how that actually works is kept too vague, as if there are not basic principles and things that have to happen right now to stop a banking collapse, to reorganize the economy etc...
In regards to the latter case, there is a sense of how bad it is, but also a lot of pessimism, a lack of belief in actually restoring governments role as representing the people. However, the only way that can happen is if people know what policies are needed for their nations not to collapse, for the global monetary system not to collapse, or that if does collapse we know the what to replace it. I mean, unless we’re still thinking “the experts have this down,” we’re going to need a new international monetary system, we’re going to need something like Breton Woods where currency manipulation isn’t allowed anymore. We’re going to need bank restructuring, since the current set of zombie banks is not going to survive much longer. Will we allow the collapse of these zombie banks to take the rest of society down with us, or will we know how to make that not happen (Glass-Steagall banking separation)?
These these are now challenges that the average news consumer needs to be think about. Then government can be made to represent people again, because people can tell their governments exactly what they want. The elected representatives are not that smart, the population needs to have a solution-concept approach to these great problems, right now. Without that larger conversation alive among the people, as the zombie bank system starts to collapse, or hyperinflation starts to kick in, things will get pretty wild.
We need a very calm voice in the burning theatre solution orientation.
It has been great to see commentators rally around Aaron Mate. I'm looking forward to his articles on Syria now that he is there (28 May). He surely was revealing during his Jimmy Dore interview.
I'd like to see comments on American Jews reaction to Israeli atrocities. Is this a situation were religion does nothing while at the same time participates? What's the difference?
Many Orthodox Jews oppose Zionism, eg Yisroel Dovid Weiss. There are many Jewish organizations that work for Palestinian rights, like the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and Jews are in leadership positions in other organizations like the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR). In the UK, there's Jews for Justice for Palestin (JfJfP). In Israel, B'Tselem has declared Israel to be an apartheid state. Many Jewish individuals, including Israeli expats like Ilan Pappe and Gilad Atzmon and Israelis who have not emigrated like Miko Peled have spoken out.
You did not mention Norman Finkelstein. He expressed himself very clearly in a recent interview with Aaron Mate. I understood him.
The rest of these guys (and organizations, only a couple I've ever heard of) may not be Zionists, but, as with American Politics, just because the Republicans are bad, it doesn't follow that the Democrats are good.
I was hoping Caitlin might provide an introduction.
I'm well aware of Finkelstein, having read "The Holocaust Industry" years ago. I believe all I mentioned support BDS. Finkelstein is weird. Like Chomsky, he opposes BDS. Chomsky scapegoats the Empire, like "the Devil made me (Zionists) do it."
The only reason Trump didn't start a war was Iranian self-restraint and their warning to the US of EXACTLY where their missiles were going to land so that the US military could evacuate their personnel or have them take shelter. This allowed the US to refrain from retaliating without losing "face," which seems to be much more important to the US than it is to China.
TYT has very recently obtained 26 million dollars, yet they haven't done anything with that money. If I had to guess it's because they needed it in order not to go under instead for expansion.
Ms. Kasparian is a sad 35 year old wanna be cool loser. She is a legit moron. Both she and Cenk probably haven't finished a book their entire life and are stupidly hedonistic (they don't even have decent taste, one is addicted to painting her face the other to shoving junk food down his mouth).
These are the screams of a woman who bet on the wrong career path and on the wrong life partner and who know's her only shot at a neoliberal fantastical future depends on being a good stenographer for power.
"...a small group of wingnuts making people nervous in the Capitol building for a few hours..." Caitlin, you are a bracing commentator. I love you. I also usually find something too much, like the above. It was not a small group, and it did more than just make people nervous. It was a mob, and it struck me the same as if a bunch of punks had their hands on my sister's-mother's-daughter's-girlfriend's-wife's body. That said, Write on!
Love Aaron Mate and the Gray Zone (and Consortium News). Haven't watched TYT in more than a decade. But I slightly disagree with the assessment of Trump's imperialism. Do you really think Hillary would not have gone to full-scale war and bombings after the Saudi tanker false flags?
If you are having trouble interpreting a particular Bible verse it probably means you have little knowledge of the Bible. Dominant religious institutions have nothing to do with the Bible. For centuries the Catholic Church burned people alive for daring to read or disseminate the Bible in the common tongue of the people (i.e. William Tyndale, Michael Servetus et al.) because reading it would expose the Church's lies and corruption. Protestantism encountered the same problem after claiming to champion Bible truth and started touting the now entirely discredited theory of 'Higher Criticism'. Which sadly, many still refer to rather like those who refer to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Can you PLEASE stop pandering to alt-right fascists for once? That's repugnant. If there is anything worse than liberals that's exactly those racist republicans!
Can you PLEASE stop pandering to alt-right fascists for once? That's repugnant. If there is anything worse than liberals that's exactly those racist republicans!
If you think Caitlin Johnson "panders" to the alt-right fascists, then you either don't know how to read, or you are yourself an rightwing fascist that perhaps claims to be a "liberal" without not knowing what that really means.
You would think that those "Alt Right Fascist/Republicans" would say " Who gives a damn about millions of aborted "Black Babies ?" , but they fight with every breath to save them, while those "Liberals" DON'T, could care less and actually promote their death !!.....Well, if you don't get who the actual racist is here, you likely never will....Best regards.
Interesting......Those racist Republicans at least fight like hell to ensure the birth of millions of "Black Babies", while those "Liberals" make damn sure that "The Total Black Population In America" remains as low as possible by championing abortion to the point of birth.....Liberals kill Blacks at will and make you like it, make you support it, vote for it, and you appear far to ignorant to understand what exactly they are doing.....Strange days....
Can you PLEASE stop pandering to alt-right idiots for once????? That's disgusting. If there is anything worse than liberals that's exactly those racist republicans!!!!
Make up your mind. Do you want us to stop pandering to alt-right fascists or alt-right idiots or both? And if not alt-right what flavor idiots do you want us to support? PS: Just about all extant organized political bodies and powerful special interest groups are some form of corporate/fascism ranging from vanilla bean genteel corrupt to deep dark chocolate darn right rotten.
The American Empire is driven by money and greed. As are other empires always, and currently Russia and China, who are at least as corrupt if not more. Religions as institutions have participated-the bishop on a chess board is a Very powerful piece, druids were the power behind the ancient Celtic kings and chieftains. The anti government sentiment that elected Trump wasn’t entirely off base, but were manipulated by Trump to his ends and fighting against the wrong enemy. The enemy is ourselves- we benefit from the Empire, and the perks of wealth Built upon the backs of the poor masses around the world are enjoyed. Nothing will change until we change.
How is Russia or China "at least as corrupt if not more?
The anti-government sentiment is entirely off base and serves the neoliberal agenda of the financialization and privatization of the global economy, an ideology pushed by Washington.
The 'city on the hill' has had a consistent foreign policy of financialization of the global economy, which means the deterioration of what sovereignty governments have. "Globalization" is just a euphemism for imperialism, the domination of monopoly capital. The reason revolutionaries in places like Bolivia praise China and say that their projects would be so much more difficult without them is because they help them develop infrastructure without the "structural adjustment" demands of the IMF, which is just an arm of US imperialism.
Anti-government ideology serves to reduce the bourgeoisie state to its essential functions and strip protections away from workers.
Is Trump a member of the Oligarchy? Or the Mob? Is there a difference?
Trump is not member of any group other than himself-he defines narcissism. Selfishness of the politicians and corporates leaders who lives lives of wealth and ease, selfishness of the masses who, if given the opportunity to live Trump’s life, will do so in a heartbeat. What I do appreciate about the current administration, which will probably not change America’s course in foreign affairs, is a willingness to support policies which are less destructive to the environment. That matters to me.
Thin gruel, indeed.
You're right about Trump. He wasn't abhorred by the establishment because he was fighting the Deep State (pretending Zionism is somehow vital to American democracy is pretty much Deep State 101); no, Trump's posture was too openly craven to play kindly Uncle Sam, champion of the oppressed and afflicted.
What's needed is an uplifting Obama-esque word-salad to quell the stench of children as drone targets. Our Liberal class cares nothing about this; they are only relieved that a semi-cogent careerist ghoul is now doing the killing, while those on the right never pretended to care in the first place.
“Screams of a dying empire”—right on lol.
This a great example of how disgusting and gross things can get. What makes it so disgusting is the fact that they feign morality, are so righteous. That makes their lies that much more disgusting.
What worries me is that many of the actual good guys in the whole truth/narrative battle i.e. people who are not hypocrites and are not afraid to speak the truth about what they see are often either lacking in a vision for the world or there is a lot of “it’s time to break off and start our own autonomous community.” In the first case, I think the idea of Justice, a good society, and how that actually works is kept too vague, as if there are not basic principles and things that have to happen right now to stop a banking collapse, to reorganize the economy etc...
In regards to the latter case, there is a sense of how bad it is, but also a lot of pessimism, a lack of belief in actually restoring governments role as representing the people. However, the only way that can happen is if people know what policies are needed for their nations not to collapse, for the global monetary system not to collapse, or that if does collapse we know the what to replace it. I mean, unless we’re still thinking “the experts have this down,” we’re going to need a new international monetary system, we’re going to need something like Breton Woods where currency manipulation isn’t allowed anymore. We’re going to need bank restructuring, since the current set of zombie banks is not going to survive much longer. Will we allow the collapse of these zombie banks to take the rest of society down with us, or will we know how to make that not happen (Glass-Steagall banking separation)?
These these are now challenges that the average news consumer needs to be think about. Then government can be made to represent people again, because people can tell their governments exactly what they want. The elected representatives are not that smart, the population needs to have a solution-concept approach to these great problems, right now. Without that larger conversation alive among the people, as the zombie bank system starts to collapse, or hyperinflation starts to kick in, things will get pretty wild.
We need a very calm voice in the burning theatre solution orientation.
It has been great to see commentators rally around Aaron Mate. I'm looking forward to his articles on Syria now that he is there (28 May). He surely was revealing during his Jimmy Dore interview.
I'd like to see comments on American Jews reaction to Israeli atrocities. Is this a situation were religion does nothing while at the same time participates? What's the difference?
Many Orthodox Jews oppose Zionism, eg Yisroel Dovid Weiss. There are many Jewish organizations that work for Palestinian rights, like the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and Jews are in leadership positions in other organizations like the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR). In the UK, there's Jews for Justice for Palestin (JfJfP). In Israel, B'Tselem has declared Israel to be an apartheid state. Many Jewish individuals, including Israeli expats like Ilan Pappe and Gilad Atzmon and Israelis who have not emigrated like Miko Peled have spoken out.
You did not mention Norman Finkelstein. He expressed himself very clearly in a recent interview with Aaron Mate. I understood him.
The rest of these guys (and organizations, only a couple I've ever heard of) may not be Zionists, but, as with American Politics, just because the Republicans are bad, it doesn't follow that the Democrats are good.
I was hoping Caitlin might provide an introduction.
I'm well aware of Finkelstein, having read "The Holocaust Industry" years ago. I believe all I mentioned support BDS. Finkelstein is weird. Like Chomsky, he opposes BDS. Chomsky scapegoats the Empire, like "the Devil made me (Zionists) do it."
The only reason Trump didn't start a war was Iranian self-restraint and their warning to the US of EXACTLY where their missiles were going to land so that the US military could evacuate their personnel or have them take shelter. This allowed the US to refrain from retaliating without losing "face," which seems to be much more important to the US than it is to China.
TYT has very recently obtained 26 million dollars, yet they haven't done anything with that money. If I had to guess it's because they needed it in order not to go under instead for expansion.
Ms. Kasparian is a sad 35 year old wanna be cool loser. She is a legit moron. Both she and Cenk probably haven't finished a book their entire life and are stupidly hedonistic (they don't even have decent taste, one is addicted to painting her face the other to shoving junk food down his mouth).
These are the screams of a woman who bet on the wrong career path and on the wrong life partner and who know's her only shot at a neoliberal fantastical future depends on being a good stenographer for power.
Sad!!!
"...a small group of wingnuts making people nervous in the Capitol building for a few hours..." Caitlin, you are a bracing commentator. I love you. I also usually find something too much, like the above. It was not a small group, and it did more than just make people nervous. It was a mob, and it struck me the same as if a bunch of punks had their hands on my sister's-mother's-daughter's-girlfriend's-wife's body. That said, Write on!
Love Aaron Mate and the Gray Zone (and Consortium News). Haven't watched TYT in more than a decade. But I slightly disagree with the assessment of Trump's imperialism. Do you really think Hillary would not have gone to full-scale war and bombings after the Saudi tanker false flags?
Excellent.
If you are having trouble interpreting a particular Bible verse it probably means you have little knowledge of the Bible. Dominant religious institutions have nothing to do with the Bible. For centuries the Catholic Church burned people alive for daring to read or disseminate the Bible in the common tongue of the people (i.e. William Tyndale, Michael Servetus et al.) because reading it would expose the Church's lies and corruption. Protestantism encountered the same problem after claiming to champion Bible truth and started touting the now entirely discredited theory of 'Higher Criticism'. Which sadly, many still refer to rather like those who refer to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
My hope is that our new emerging culture overtakes and overwhelms the culture of bullshit we grew up in...
Can you PLEASE stop pandering to alt-right fascists for once? That's repugnant. If there is anything worse than liberals that's exactly those racist republicans!
Can you PLEASE stop pandering to alt-right fascists for once? That's repugnant. If there is anything worse than liberals that's exactly those racist republicans!
If you think Caitlin Johnson "panders" to the alt-right fascists, then you either don't know how to read, or you are yourself an rightwing fascist that perhaps claims to be a "liberal" without not knowing what that really means.
You would think that those "Alt Right Fascist/Republicans" would say " Who gives a damn about millions of aborted "Black Babies ?" , but they fight with every breath to save them, while those "Liberals" DON'T, could care less and actually promote their death !!.....Well, if you don't get who the actual racist is here, you likely never will....Best regards.
Interesting......Those racist Republicans at least fight like hell to ensure the birth of millions of "Black Babies", while those "Liberals" make damn sure that "The Total Black Population In America" remains as low as possible by championing abortion to the point of birth.....Liberals kill Blacks at will and make you like it, make you support it, vote for it, and you appear far to ignorant to understand what exactly they are doing.....Strange days....
Can you PLEASE stop pandering to alt-right idiots for once????? That's disgusting. If there is anything worse than liberals that's exactly those racist republicans!!!!
Make up your mind. Do you want us to stop pandering to alt-right fascists or alt-right idiots or both? And if not alt-right what flavor idiots do you want us to support? PS: Just about all extant organized political bodies and powerful special interest groups are some form of corporate/fascism ranging from vanilla bean genteel corrupt to deep dark chocolate darn right rotten.